Somebody Reads Our Newsletter or Blog Items

You may remember the last two Halloween issues that we suggested that you should do the famous There's a Platypus Controlling Me song from "Brain Drain" as a cosplay for Halloween. Well, at the 2013 DragonCon in Atlanta, these people did exactly that. Congratulations to that quartet who did a wonderful job, and we give some much needed props to the peeps at Geek Alabama for bringing us this picture.

Crat Corner

It's less than two weeks until the return of "Ferbruary", when we celebrate the official launch of Phineas and Ferb. Can you believe it's been six years since the world was introduced to the boundless imagination of two step-brothers, a platypus that is more than meets the eye (but has yet to transform, other than that one time when he became a cyborg), and the poster child for high-strung teens.

Anyway, as you know, we occasionally do special themes for the wiki. Right now, we're coming out of our winter theme and looking forward to Valentine's day. After that, is Platypus Day. That will be March 1st this year. From there, we may take a break for a while until the next major holiday such as July 4th. But if someone comes up with a really good suggestion for a new theme, we might have one sooner than that.

Until then, there's time to get caught up on the issues we've had pending and that I need to work on.

Oh, that awful "research"

Earlier this month while discussing what I've been doing lately, I mentioned that I had been doing some research and that I would say what that was in the newsletter. And then I forgot to put it in the last issue. So here it is: I've been playing Disney Infinity.

I will be going into more detail about the game later on, but here's the basics. It's a game for the several gaming consoles that uses figures you buy to add content to it. Now, there have been video games in the past that tie into various movies, but they typically follow the plot of the movie. This has original storylines, is a lot more comprehensive and allows you to mix characters from different franchises together, such as Buzz Lightyear, Jack Skellington and Jack Sparrow.

Where it really shines is the Toy Box, where the more you play and create the world around you, the more components you get to build it. All the great imagination-based toys and games have had a sandbox to play in, from Sim City to LEGOs. They give you the freedom to explore and play the way you want to.

The Phineas and Ferb Toy Box Set will be released on April 1st, with the Phineas and Agent P figures being released separately at the end of the month. Ferb is not in the set. After that's available, I will review it in a newsletter. We'll see how close they get the spirit of the show, and we'll see Dan and Swampy at the launch back in August.

I probably won't have any other merchandise reviews until then because one of the other things I will be doing is continuing on with my guides to deciding what to buy. Disney is selling the figures and power discs for the game in various overlapping combinations, so it takes a bit of research to figure out how to make smart purchases that save money. One example is that you can buy the Frozen Play Set and get the two figures and the two power discs for the movie Frozen. But if you already purchased the entire Series 2 power disc set from Target, then you've already got those discs and you only have to buy the individual figures. Same goes with the Wreck-It Ralph Play Set.

Once the P&F Toy Box Set arrives, I should have a list of those buying guides available and can just link to them over on the Disney Infinity Wiki.

Odds 'n' Ends

Walt Disney World has announced their popular Star Wars Weekends dates for this year, with events running on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May 16th through June 8th. As we know, there's this little crossover coming in the summer of Disney Channel and Disney XD with the boys, so we're wondering if there will be some sort of tie-in with the hype machine for this event. Stay tuned, as they say.

The Numbers Game

It may be a cold winter's day or night outside, depending on where you live, but one column can heat up any day: The Numbers Game! This is the newsletter column that breaks down the numbers of our favorite show.

"Just Our Luck" was the first new Phineas and Ferb episode of 2014, premiering on Disney Channel on Friday, January 10. 1.750 million viewers felt its positive stinkelkrampen (and saw the returns of a couple favorite characters), a 3 percent increase from two months prior. The slight increase came on the strength of a 1.3 household rating, also up a tenth from the previous episode. The episode checked in at 89th among all Disney Channel programming on the week, higher than the last episode but still trailing several preschool shows and a 2:00AM Eastern trip to the A.N.T. Farm. The total viewership was also a 14 percent decrease from its lead-in Wander Over Yonder.

Once again, Phineas and Ferb was unable to find the Top 10 in any of its target age groups, which were paced for the week by a new episode of Nickelodeon's Sam & Cat. Thus, the age group viewership information is not available. Among Adults 18-49, the show scored a 0.28 rating, likely an increase over "Steampunx", although its exact figure was not given.

Phineas and Ferb returns to the new airwaves with "Return Policy", from which only one contestant will survive. Find out who makes it through on Friday, January 24 at 9:15PM Eastern (8:15 Central). The Numbers Game will be back next issue to cover it, and hopefully we won't need a return policy for the ratings. Until then, leave your comments down below, and remember...that the numbers never lie.

Review: Where's Perry? (Part Two)

Previously I reviewed the first part of this two parter, so now I am reviewing the second part.

The episode starts at Chez Afrique, when Linda and Lawrence are sitting on a coach, and while they are talking the maître d' comes over and tells them their reservation was put as Fletcher-Flynn and apologizes to them.

Which Inator zapped him?

At the OWCA Carl is angry about what Doofenshmirtz did and checks out to find which inator blasted Perry. After going through each inator Carl discovers it was the go home inator that hit Perry. Carl then takes a plane to go the Flynn-Fletcher house because he thinks that is where Perry is. Back in Africa Candace is on top of a tree and thinks that Jeremy broke up with her, and then she ends up falling out of the tree and then runs off proclaiming she is going native.

Over on a cliff the gang is hang on vines and Phineas says they need to get down. Everyone’s vines then start breaking and Phineas catches everyone but Buford who is saved by a vine that Baljeet throws around his right leg. Once they get down Phineas says they need to save Perry, which confuses the others. Meanwhile in Danville Carl goes into the Flynn-Fletcher house and is unable to find Perry, and the Candace robot goes to her doppelgangers room and then at that time Jeremy leaves a message which the robot ends up recording.

Back in Africa the gang continues to search for Perry, but Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet wonder how Perry can be in Africa. Perry who is hiding behind a bush then receives a call from Carl who then using a flower he sees next to Perry determines that Perry is in Africa and then gets back into the plane with the robots and heads off to Africa.

Back at the O.W.C.A.Major Monogram is eventually able to convince Doofenshmirtz to free him and they head off to Africa using the spare plane to go stop Carl.

Back in Africa Candace is sad about leaving everything behind but is now going to be Livin' with Monkeys. Meanwhile Phineas and the Gang are continue to track down Perry and now follow Perry's footprints. Carl who has arrived in Africa orders his robots to find Perry. Meanwhile on the plane with Monogram, Doofenshmirtz is building a re-good-inator to use and fire at Carl. Soon Phineas and the gang reach a river and spot Perry and start crossing over a log, and the Lawrence robot under orders shoots the log causing the gang to fall into the river and Perry turns around and comes out of the cave. Carl then talks to Perry who refuses to give up his paw print so they have to do it the hard way as a fight between Carl's robots and Perry's new recruits breaks out.

Meanwhile, Phineas and gang are floating down the river and eventually get in a line and move unto a tree that ends up flinging into quicksand.

Back at the battle, Doofenshmirtz and Monogram crash land the plane with Doofenshmirtz declaring we live. Candace then hears what is going on and saves a lemur agent and then joins the battle that is going on. Doofenshmirtz then tells Monogram when asked about the inator that he needs a few more parts which Monogram goes to find as he joins the battle. Candace continues to fight the robots until she is cornered by the Phineas robot and is about to be destroyed but robot Candace runs and dives in front of Candaces and saves Candace. The Candace robot then shoots the Phineas robot and after that plays Jeremy's message to her and Candace after hearing the message realizes Jeremy did not break up with her. Just as the Candace robot shuts off it gives Candace a phone to Jeremy with and Candace explains to Jeremy what happened.

The gang, who is in the quicksand, is rescued by Buford who landed on a ledge and threw a vine down to them. Back at the battle Doofenshmirtz gets the tape he needs and now has completed the re-good-inator, with one small problem that it can only fire in one place. Perry then lures Carl to the x-shaped rock and eventually Doofenshmirtz fires the inator and the beam bounces off Perry's picture and hits Carl. Monogram than tells Carl he is giving him the title of paid intern although he would not actually be paid and then tells Carl to clean up the mess. Monogram then allows Perry to go to his owners since he earned it. Momogram, Carl and Doofenshmirtz then leave.

Phineas and the gang finally get to Perry and Phineas grabs him. They then have to find a way out of the gorge which Candace who has just walked up to them uses a yell to bring elephants to them to get them out of the gorge. Meanwhile on the plane Monogram explains to Carl why Perry went to Africa when hit with the go home-inator. To end the episode the gang, along with Linda, Lawrence, Candace and Ignatius sit around a campfire. After talking about how Perry followed them to Africa everyone heads to bed satisfied with Ferb's answer to the question, except Candace.

My thoughts on the episode were that it was a great episode and what I was expecting and hoping to happen after weeks of waiting to watch it. The battle scene was great and the Candace robot saving Candace from getting destroyed by the Phineas robot was also good. I really liked how they had the Candace robot deliver Jeremy's message to Candace and give her a phone to call Jeremy with and explain to him what happened. I also enjoyed the part where Buford was pulling the others out of the quicksand, and as he was doing so Baljeet's pants fell and Baljeet remarked he had never been pantsed by a continent before. Overall I thought it was a good episode and one of my favorite episodes of a series. It was well thought out, had good humor, and was written well. I give the episode an A.